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Women's Experience of Personal Power REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introducti

This thesis examines women's experience of personal power. The review of literature presented in this chapter of the thesis addresses three issues related to this examination. First, the review provides a rationale for the development of the study's general topic. Second, the chapter presents a review of the existing research on the personal power of women in conflict resolution settings. Third, the chapter provides a discussion of how the thesis will contribute to the existing research.

This study's research question is, "How do women perceive and describe their experience of personal power?" The question was developed as an outgrowth of my experiences with conflict resolution both in the corporate world and in Antioch College's Conflict Resolution program. As the only person of color in both settings, I repeatedly observed that the field did not fully encourage either minorities or women to overcome their fears of stating their real feelings and opinions---a pivotal element of the experience and expression of personal power.

Rather than encouragement, what I found was that the structures inherent in the conflict resolution model, whether applied in a corporate or academic setting, incorporated an inherent imbalance of power with the mediator or facilitator assuming the dominant role and the disputants given a subordinate role. This dominate/subordinate structure itself can be a barrier to the development of self-reliance and self-determination for women and/or minorities; moreover, such a structure does not facilitate the learning of improved conflict resolution skills.

In addition to the foregoing observances, I also found that conceptual models of psychosocial power and conflict (see: Blalock, 1989; Boulding, 1990; Clegg, 1990; May, 1972) do not fully address power when it is defined as having the temerity to state one's honest opinions and true feelings. Therefore, examining women's experience of personal power...

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Women's Experience of Personal Power REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introducti. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:06, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704541.html